The PlayStation Vita is a powerful piece of hardware that developers like Ragnarok Odyssey director Kazuhiro Irie are just starting to tap into. Since Game Arts has been one of the biggest Vita supporters with three titles already on the market, I asked Irie what features of the Vita are underutilized.
“Well, the CPU has definitely been underutilized. Right now, the GPU uses up the CPU, so I believe some extra fine-tuning will be required in the future,” Irie answered. “By using up the CPU for graphics, though, display tricks like physical manipulation and motion blending become possible, allowing for more and more characters on the screen at once, creating scenarios that really affect the overall feel of the game.”
“I also feel that online functionality and touchscreen functionality have been underutilized on the Vita so far, of course,” Irie added. “For Ragnarok in particular, I’m hoping to diversify the action some more, create even bigger boss battles, further deepen player customization, allow for more than four players to group together in multiplayer, and maybe even add player-vs.-player combat in future installments. As you can see, there’s a lot on my mind for this series!”
And the North American launch of Ragnarok Odyssey is probably at the forefront of his mind. Xseed will release the game here on October 30 in standard and Mercenary Edition flavors.
